JP2005182101A - Automatic printing control method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an automatic printing control method that reduces print waiting time by preventing print output data from being sent to a printer device in the process of printing or a printer device unready for printing owing to a failure or the like. <P>SOLUTION: The automatic printing control method connects one computer apparatus and a plurality of printer devices for printing print output data from the computer apparatus. The computer apparatus searches the plurality of printer devices for a printer device ready for printing, acquires a count value from the printer device found ready for printing in the search, compares the printer count value with an application side count value to detect an empty buffer of the printer, and sends print output data to the printer with an empty buffer. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a print control method performed in a computer apparatus to which a plurality of printer apparatuses are connected.

  In a general network environment in which a plurality of printer devices are connected via a network, the computer device that is the print output data source and the printer device that is the print output data destination are set to have a one-to-one correspondence. For example, the above-described one-to-one setting is performed when the user explicitly specifies the printer name for specifying the printer device to be printed on the computer device side.

  Thus, recently, various technologies have been proposed that can perform efficient print processing with a short print waiting time in the network environment as described above. As an example of such a technique, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 4-85618 discloses a data processing device that can automatically select a printer device with the least waiting for printing from a plurality of printer devices connected by a network. It is disclosed.

  In this data processing device, a data processing device to which an input device such as a keyboard and a mouse and a display device such as a CRT are connected and a print control device that controls the printing device are connected via a network. A data processing apparatus to which an input device and a display device are further connected and a print control apparatus for controlling the printing apparatus are similarly connected to the network.

  When print data is given in response to a print request from an input device, the data processing device selects a plurality of printing devices and displays them on the display device. Print data via the network.

  Each print control device outputs and transfers the print data given via the network to the print device to control the print operation, and periodically checks the print load state based on the print queue of the print data. This inspection result is sent to each data processing apparatus via the network.

  In the data processing apparatus configured as described above, when print data is given in response to a print request from the input apparatus, the data processing apparatus performs a print queue based on the print load state inspection information from each print control apparatus. The printer with the smaller number is selected, and print data is transmitted to the selected printer. Thereby, the printing waiting time is reduced, and the utilization efficiency of the printing apparatus is improved.

  As similar to the above data processing apparatus, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-129337 discloses an optimum physical printing apparatus according to printing conditions from the current state of the printing apparatus, for example, a printer pending in the printing apparatus A system is disclosed that designates a printing apparatus with the smallest number of output requests and sends print data. By adopting such a system configuration, the destinations of the print data sent to each printing apparatus are averaged, and the printing apparatus can be effectively used as a whole system.

  In addition to those described in the above-mentioned publications, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 5-108582 discloses that a printer device that has requested print output data has already been in a waiting state in response to print output data requests from other computer devices. A system is disclosed that substitutes another printer device when the number of print output data requests in the waiting state exceeds a certain number or when the print output data is in a stopped state due to a failure or the like. Yes. By adopting such a system configuration, it is possible to distribute the load and improve the efficiency of print output data.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 4-85618 Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 5-108582 JP 7-129337 A

  However, each of the above-described conventional techniques has the following problems.

  In the devices described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 4-85618 and 7-129337, whether or not the printer device to which the print data is sent can be printed (for example, whether it is in a print stop state due to a failure, etc. ) Or the like is transmitted without confirming the print data, and therefore, there is a problem in that the print data is also transmitted to the printer apparatus in a print stop state due to a failure or the like.

  In the one described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 5-108582, print data is not sent to the printer in failure, but the number of pending print output data requests exceeds a certain number. Since it is configured to send print data only to other printer devices, even if there are other printer devices in a printable state, as long as the number of pending print output data requests does not exceed a certain number, The printer device in a printable state cannot be used, and the efficiency of the print output data is reduced accordingly.

  SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide an automatic print control method with a low print waiting time, in which print output data is not sent to a printer device that is printing or a printer device that is in a print stop state due to a failure or the like. is there.

  In order to achieve the above object, an automatic print control method according to the present invention comprises a computer device connected to a plurality of printer devices for printing print output data from the computer device. The printer device that is in a printable state is searched from among the plurality of printer devices, the count value is obtained for the printer device that is determined to be printable by the search, and the count value on the application side Is compared with the count value of the printer to detect the empty buffer of the printer and send the print output data to the printer having the empty buffer.

  According to the present invention, print data is not sent to a printer device that is in the process of printing as in the prior art, and if there is a printer device in a printable state, printing can be performed immediately and an error can occur. Since the printing can be transferred to another printer even when the error occurs, it is possible to provide an automatic print control method with a small printing waiting time.

  Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  An embodiment of the automatic print control method of the present invention is shown in FIG. In this automatic print control method, a computer device 1 that operates under program control and a plurality of printer devices 2 for printing print output data from the computer device 1 are connected by a network 3 of a USB cable.

  In the setting of the printer in the computer apparatus 1, when the user registers a specific code and selects a printer apparatus that performs printing from a list of printer apparatuses that can be connected in advance, the selection In some cases, a printer name (specific printer name) corresponding to the printer apparatus is registered. In the former case, when the user outputs a print request from the computer device 1, the computer device 1 searches for a printer device in a printable state from among a plurality of printer devices 2 connected by the network 3. Then, printing is performed by sending print output data to the printer device which is in a printable state by the search. In the latter case, printing is performed only by a printer device that is associated one-to-one. In this embodiment, in order to realize the operation in the former case, the computer apparatus 1 and the printer apparatus 2 are configured as follows.

  The computer device 1 includes an application unit 10 that performs a specific job, an interface unit 11 that mainly functions as an interface between the application unit 10 and the printer device 2, and a printer driver 12 that controls the printer device 2. Have.

  When there is a print request from the application unit 10, the interface unit 11 inquires the printer driver 12 about the state of the printer device 2 connected via the network 3, and based on a report from the printer driver 12 in response to the inquiry, A printer device in a printable state is searched. In addition, the interface unit 11 designates a printer device that is in a printable state by the search and sends print output data from the application unit 10 to the printer driver 12. In response to an inquiry from the interface unit 11, the printer driver 12 sequentially communicates with the printer device 2 connected via the network 3 to receive a report of the current printer status, and to the printer device designated by the interface unit 11. Then, print output data from the application unit 10 is sent out and printed.

  The printer device 2 includes a printer status report unit that reports the current printer status to the printer driver 12.

  Next, the overall operation of the automatic recognition printing method configured as described above will be described. FIG. 2 shows the flow of printing processing in the automatic recognition printing method of this embodiment. Hereinafter, the printing process will be described with reference to FIG.

  First, when a user makes a print request on the computer device 1, the computer device 1 sends print output data together with the print request from the application unit 10 to the interface unit 11. Upon receiving the print request, the interface unit 11 checks whether the printer name set by the user is a specific code or a specific printer name.

  If the confirmation of the printer setting is a specific code, the interface unit 11 designates one of the plurality of printer devices 2 and designates the printer of the designated printer device to the printer driver 12. The number of print jobs is inquired (step S10). Upon receiving an inquiry from the interface unit 11, the printer driver 12 communicates with the designated printer device, receives a report of the current number of jobs for the printer from the printer status report unit of the printer device, and reports the report to the interface unit 11. Send it out.

  Based on the report received from the printer driver 12, the interface unit 11 confirms whether the designated printer device is printing (Busy) or is ready for printing (Ready) (step S11). If the report from the printer driver 12 indicates that printing is in progress (Busy), the interface unit 11 designates another printer device from among the plurality of printer devices 2 and designates it to the printer driver 12. Inquires about the printer status of the selected printer. This process is repeated until the printer driver 12 reports that the printer is ready for printing (Ready), that is, until a printer device in a printable state is found.

  When the printer driver 12 reports that the printer is ready for printing (Ready), the interface unit 11 acquires the number of sheets already printed by the printer as a count value (step S12). The application unit 10 compares the acquired value with the stored count value of the number of transmitted sheets, and determines that the printer has an empty buffer when the difference is 1 or less, and uses the print output data from the application unit 10 as a printer driver. 12 (steps S13 and S14), and 1 is added to the transmitted count value of the application unit 10 (step S15).

  The printer driver 12 that has received the print output data from the interface unit 11 sends the print output data to the printer device designated by the interface unit 11 and in a printable state. As a result, the print output data is printed by the printer device designated by the interface unit 11 and in a printable state. If the difference between the count values is greater than 1, the printer is switched to another printer (step S16).

  If the confirmation of the printer setting in step S11 described above is a specific printer name, the interface unit 11 specifies the printer device corresponding to the specific printer name to the printer driver 12, and the application unit 10 Print output data from. Then, the printer driver 12 sends the received print output data to the printer device designated by the interface unit 11.

Next, a processing method when an error occurs in the printer will be described with reference to FIG.
In this embodiment, a case where the printer has a buffer for two prints will be described.
The print job is confirmed, and if there is a print job, the printer status is not acquired (step S20). If there is no print job, the printer status is acquired to check whether an error has occurred (steps S21 and S22). Here, if the status is acquired when there is a print job, the status is acquired when there is a print job in order to prevent the application unit 10 from waiting for the printer to run out of print jobs and acquire the status. It is configured not to.

  If an error has occurred, the count value of the number of printed sheets of the printer is fetched (step S23), and the difference from the count value of the number of transmitted sheets on the application side is compared. When the difference between the count values is 2 (step S24), the application unit 10 retransmits the previous and previous data of the print data transmitted to the printer to another printer (steps S25 and S27). If the count value is 1 in step S24, the process proceeds to step S26, and the application unit 10 retransmits the previous print data transmitted to the printer to another printer. For this reason, even if there is a printer that has stopped due to an error, it can be transferred to another printer and printed, so a large number of printing processes can be performed at high speed.

It is a block diagram which shows one Embodiment of the automatic recognition printing method of this invention. It is a flowchart figure which shows the flow of the printing process in the automatic recognition printing method shown in FIG. FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a flow of print error processing in the automatic recognition printing method shown in FIG. 1.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Computer apparatus 2 Printer 3 Network 10 Application part 11 Interface part 12 Printer driver

Claims (1)

  A printer in which one computer device and a plurality of printer devices for printing print output data from the computer device are connected, and the computer device is in a printable state from among the plurality of printer devices. The printer is searched for, and a count value is acquired for the printer device that is in a printable state by the search, and the printer's free buffer is detected by comparing the count value on the application side with the count value of the printer. An automatic print control method characterized by sending print output data to a printer having an empty buffer.

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